Kurenai Zenshin
Kurenai Zenshin (善心=紅, Zenshin Kurenai) is a mysterious young woman that Gai Nagareboshi encounters. Beautiful, fey, and mysterious, Kurenai is Gai's closest companion, a very cheerful girl. Noticing that Gai has trouble with his emotions and morals, Kurenai does her best to pick his spirits up when he gets discouraged. While not the protagonist, Kurenai is a driving force behind Gai's actions in her own right, being a leash for him in regards to his actions and morals; her influence is the one thing that allows him to be considered even remotely similar to an actual hero, and she is the medium in which Gai decides that he desires to change. She tends to react to things emotionally rather than thinking, although she's still less reckless than Gai; she also prefers to speak her mind, and her enthusiasm and caring enable her to make fast friends with almost anyone. She is the secondary main character of Dragonball Gyaku. Appearance Kurenai's figure is one of tremendous beauty; with long, flowing crimson hair which is splayed out in all directions at the ends, reaching down to her hips. Several large clumps of hair stick out, some curling away horizontally. Her bangs frame her face, though they have two 'layers', with the behind layers falling to rest upon her chest. There are a few locks of hair kept in the middle of her forehead; there is a slim curled forelock of hair at the top of her head. Her piercing emerald eyes glimmer in the sun. Kurenai is described as a "person who seems so gentle, yet rather scary at the same time". Even though Kurenai appears strikingly identical to Gai's mother, this fact does not stop him from falling deeply in love with her. Kurenai usually wears a white long-sleeved, button-down shirt with a black ribbon on her shirt collar worn under a black shoulder cape and matching button-down corset, a magenta skirt with white accents, and brown dress shoes over white crew-length socks. On some rare occasions, Kurenai wears glasses when she's trying to think of things, as she feels they make her mind work better despite having normal eyesight. When she is in battle, she wears a winged hat, a Japanese-style military uniform, and black military boots. Personality and Traits Kurenai is a sweet and kind girl, though rather quiet, generally positive and upbeat, despite supposedly having amnesia. As Gai saved saved her life and gave her a name, she shows absolute respect and devotion towards him, acting as an older sister of sorts, being the 'leash' on his morals and actions. Kurenai is one of the few people who can influence Gai's train of thought in a nonviolent or manipulative way. She does not understand her own emotions, shown when she even had to ask Nika if she loves Gai or not. Above all, Kurenai has a dislike of violence, and detests fighting in any way; to the point that she will regularly call Gai out on his brutal killings, even if it is for the sole purpose of protecting her. Despite her happy attitude, Kurenai feels inferior and a burden to others, making her jealous of some people. Kurenai attempts to turn these feelings into positive ones and not let them affect her, never stopping protecting the people close to her. Initially, Kurenai displayed little concern for her own life, and instead saw herself as expendable. However, through Gai's influence, she quickly grew out of these feelings and fell in love with him. Kurenai constantly gives Gai emotional support through the more hellish parts of his life, even though she remarks that she doesn't know what kind of person he is deep down. She is in love with Gai, and is one of the major characters into softening his heart. However, underneath the facade she puts on, she is actually a very depressed, cynical and broken young woman. On top of her amnesia, she was once an outcast who nobody loved, and was subequently rejected by the world, called a "witch" due to her powers. After meeting Gai, Kurenai's personality has changed dramatically, from where she's scared to stand alone, to the point where she's willing to fight for her own sake and now holds beliefs of her own. History Synopsis Equipment Weapon: Kurenai's weapon takes the shape of a short sword resembling a quill tip and a book-like shield. However, it can change its shape for some of her attacks. Powers and Abilities Kurenai has very little going for her, leading her to often end up as the 'damsel in distress' more often then not. However, by the time of the sequel, she has improved significantly. However, while her new combat skills are dwarfed by fighters of Gai or Mitsuru's caliber, they are at a level superior to that of a weak Saiyan. Her high comprehension of Gai's fighting style due to their shared memories and close combat in general lends itself to her proficiency with improvisational tactics, basic hand-to-hand combat and notable skill with a blade. Techniques Flight: Kurenai's version of flight is unique, in that it forms two angelic wings of solid ki upon her back. *'Lux Aeterna' (審技・空ヲ翔ル翼, "Shin Waza: Sora wo Shōru Tsubasa"): Kurenai spreads her wings and uses their massive acceleration in conjunction with her blade. With her wings, Kurenai rushes into close combat range with unprecedented speed and impales her target with her blade. Telekinesis: Telekinesis is an ability to move matter with the mind without exerting any physical force upon the items. Kurenai uses this ability to manipulate physical objects; she is able to grasp an object and hurl it at her targets great distances with tremendous force. She can also project energy blasts that can bring harm to others and she is able to stun her targets by materializing a sphere of psychic energy around herself. For movement, she is able to manipulate herself by levitating in the air to fly at tremendous speeds which are comparable to the highest flight speeds. She can also teleport short distances. One of her favourite tactics is to create telekinetic energy appendages to move an item, giving it a vector, making it easier to move and more effective than normal telekinesis. She can create large blades of ki that can be launched at her opponent or used as swords as her main attack, and she can confuse her opponent's sense of direction. Act Parser (行為分(アクトパルサー) , "Akuto Parusā"): Kurenai's signature technique. First, she points at the foe with her middle and index fingers, with her thumb sticking out as if making a finger gun. There, in the span of an instant, she charges up ki within her fingers, before making a firing motion with her hand, instantly expelling the ki in the form of a large beam of energy, spinning the trajectory of the beam like a powerful drill, generating enough force to destroy even buildings with one shot. It fires at such a quick speed that more often than not opponents are overcome with it's surprising power and swiftness—in fact, the moment from firing to the impact is usually 0.34 seconds, leaving Kurenai to utilize another attack or fire many, many more Act Parsers to overwhelm her foe in a matter of moments. *'Act Parser Chaser' (行為分追跡者(アクトパルサーチェイサー) , "Akuto Parusā Cheisā"): A slightly more powerful version of Act Parser, where Kurenai points all five fingers of her left hand at the opponent. Then, she charges up five small crimson ki spheres each on the tip of each finger, before unleashing the spheres in the form of a myriad of Act Parser blasts—what's unique about these blasts is that they chase their foes to the ends of the earth, no matter where the foe is standing, even if they possessed high speed, as they would catch their foe eventually. The blasts can move at impossible angles, that always manages to reach its target; they will always change their path around any obstacles or pierce through any wall in order to reach their target. However, as a downside, the blasts are easy to deflect and dissipate. **'Act Parser Zwei' (行為分二(アクトパルサーツヴァイ) , "Akuto Parusā Tsuvai"): Kurenai points forward with both of her hands before making a finger gun gesture, firing twin Act Parsers with both of her hands, swiftly backing away while maintaining the beams' shame and movement—a key difference between this and the regular Act Parser is that Act Parser Zwei can be controlled using arm movements to swiftly strike her foes. Kurenai is able to utilize this technique in a similar manner to gun-kata, spinning around and performing flashy movements while flinging Act Parsers everywhere, though doing so is highly taxing upon her body. ***'Act Parser Zwei: Blade' (行為分剣(アクトパルサーツヴァイブレード) , "Akuto Parusā Tsuvai Burēdo"): Kurenai's hand which is charging up the Act Parser is wrapped with the crimson ki of the attack, which stabs outward in the direction of the outstretched fingertips in the form of a blade. By doing this, she converts the fluctuating state of ki into a solid in order to attack her foe. As such a phase transition also absorbs an incredible amount of heat energy in the process, the same surrounding area as Kurenai plummets in temperature as a direct result. If the foe were able to evade Kurenai's blow, then they'd have to deal with the drastic decrease in temperature as well. ****'Act Parser Zwei: Cavalier' (行為分紳士(アクトパルサーツヴァイキャバリア) , "Akuto Parusā Tsuvai Kyabaria"): The strongest variation of Act Parser. Utilizing this technique, Kurenai makes a finger gun gesture, before using her free hand to support the gesturing hand. There, she amasses and charges up a truly immense amount of ki, using the structure of her gesture to allow ki to converge at her fingertips. Upon releasing the ki, she cocks her hand back like a shotgun, releasing a pitch-black wave of energy from her fingers. The power of this technique creates a one hundred and fifty meter diameter of extremely high heated energy, and also an electromagnetic field effect, and if it doesn't obliterate the foe, it propels the victim into the air or anything in the vicinity by the sheer force of the blast. The force of the blast is enough to pulverize any defenses, as well as eradicate any weak charging ki in the vicinity. Inferno Divider (地獄の算器(インフェルノディバイダー ) , "Inferuno Dibaidā"): Thrusting her left hand forward, Kurenai uses her right hand to support her forward hand. There, she makes a gesture with her middle and pointer finger facing towards her target and her thumb out, charging ki upon her forward fingers, before releasing the energy in the form rapidly firing many crimson energy beams at lightning speeds. It is effective for quick, widespread, and massive amounts of damage, but it is very draining on her ki level. Kurenai can mentally stop the ki blasts released and point them in another direction if the opponent dodges, making it possible to strike multiple enemies with pinpoint accuracy, even bypassing certain targets. *'Hell's Fang' (地獄の牙(ヘルズファング) , "Heruzu Fangu"):Kurenai manifests crimson ki around her body before raising both of her hands above her head and charging the energy from around her body into her hands, before manifesting it outwards in the form of a crimson sphere of ki in front of her. There, she imbues her hand with ki, before punching the sphere, as three beams are shot simultaneously from the same firing-point, creating the visual effect of a trident's blades. Hane Renda (羽根連打, "Feather Barrage"): Kurenai flares her ki out to its fullest, generating an aura resembling the classic peacock feathers. This aura magnifies significantly in the span of a few moments, before more feathers spread and the "eyes" turn magenta within blue. Then, Kurenai launches the "eyes" at her opponents, which home in upon them, giving them little to no chance to escape unless it is physically impossible to harm them or a serious obstruction is in the way. Once they impact upon the opponent, these "eyes" explode spectacularly. *'Benedictus Rex' (審槍・空ヲ突ク槍, "Shin Yari: Sora wo Totsuku Yari"): Kurenai converges the "eyes" into a single razor-sharp disc that she flings at her foe- it is razor sharp, similar to Destructo Disk, but it is much faster. Hanya Heki (はんやへき, "Midnight Burst"): Kurenai's eyes glow light blue and her body becomes surrounded by a crimson aura. She then raises her arms above her head. When she does, the aura around her forearms gets thicker. She then slams her arms down into the ground. A pink and crimson growing forcefield of ki appears from the aura around Kurenai's arms and grows larger, spreading all around her, pushing everything back that possesses a killing intent. The thicker the aura is around Kurenai's arms, the more powerful the attack becomes. *'Confutatis Maledictis' (審罰・天ヲ刈ル焔, "Shin Batsu: Ten wo Kariru Honō"): Kurenai compresses the energy of Hanya Heki onto her blade, before swinging forward into the form of a blazing arc of ki akin to Shining Onslaught. **'Macto Maledictis' (審罰・地ヲ抱ク衣, "Shin Batsu: Chi wo Hōku Koromo"): Kurenai causes the energy of Hanya Heki to amass around her body, swirling around it at tremendous speeds, forming a small barrier, taking any "threat" attacking her and assimilating it into the barrier generated around her body, which takes the "threat" and throws it in a random direction, however, this barrier can be pierced by aiming "weak" attacks at Kurenai. ***'Requiem Aeternam' (審聖・人ヲ裁ク神, "Shin Hijiri: Nin wo Sai ku Kami"): Kurenai swipes both of her arms in a circular motion until the bottom of her hands meet. The hand on top has the index and middle fingers pointing upwards, while the other hand has the little and index fingers pointing downwards. While doing this, Kurenai is surrounded by the aura of Hanya Heki, before she unleashes a huge explosion in the shape of an extremely large, vertical sword's blade, which can strike a single target out of others nearby. Sōryū Enbu (双龍円舞, "Twin Dragon Waltz"): Kurenai summons twin dragons of blazing and shocking ki, respectively, which Kurenai refers to as Flame Dragon (炎龍, "Enryū") and Thunder Dragon (雷龍, "Rairyū"). They then shoot at the target as if they were real dragons, moving at high speeds. This attack is a homage to EnRyu and RaiRyu from The King of Braves GaoGaiGar series. *'Sanctus Decus' (審剣・風ヲ凪グ剣, "Shin Tsurugi: Kaze wo Nagigu Tsurugi"): Kurenai combines the twin dragons into a blade of dual elements, which she shoots forward at her foe- it possesses extreme piercing power and moves at incredible speeds, so much that some foes don't realize that she's launched the attack until they've been struck. Sonic Shooting (ソニック・シュートング, "Sonikku Shūtingu"): Sonic Shooting is Kurenai's high-speed shooting technique, derived from Gai's Light Seekers. When cast, it generates a number of "divine spheres" made out of pure ki and bolts of golden light can be fired. Being Kurenai's basic shooting attack, Sonic Shooting is usually her first option for attacking as it takes minimal time to be unleashed. It also has auto-homing and barrier-piercing properties—a total of 32 bolts can be fired, being able to make incredibly quick turns and Kurenai can control it rather precisely. Its only disadvantage is that Kurenai cannot utilize nor control the attack when moving. Twice Critical (龍の手（トウワイス・クリティカル), "Tōwaisu Kuritikaru"): This ability causes the user's ki to expand within their bodies, quadrupling their power for a short amount of time. It is noted to be somewhat similar to another technique; Kaiō-ken, though Twice Critical possesses none of the drawbacks of the other ability. In addition, the user can double the amount of power received by Twice Critical- up to sixteen times the amount, though this is highly taxing on their ki- and eventually, after repeated use without rest leads to stress and possible bodily destruction- something which is an inevitable fate for most users. Transformations Relationships Trivia